Around My French Table (23 page)

Grate the carrots by hand, using the large holes of a box grater, or by push-button, using the grating blade of a food processor. Either way, if the grating causes the carrots to weep, press them between your palms to rid them of excess liquid before you toss them into a serving bowl.

If you've used a processor, make the dressing in it; if not, use a small jar. Put the mustard, honey, vinegar, and oil in the processor or jar, season with salt and pepper, and whir or shake until blended—you'll have a thick, smooth vinaigrette. (Or whisk the dressing together in a small bowl.)

Toss the carrots with the currants or raisins and nuts, if you're using them. Just before serving, pour over the dressing, toss well, and adjust the salt and pepper if needed. If you're using the parsley, add it.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

SERVING
Whether served as a solo starter, part of a crudités plate, or a side to a casual main, this is best at room temperature or just slightly chilled. And while I prefer it right after it's been dressed, when the carrots still have a teensy bit of crunch, the French fashion is for a softer salad, one that's been left to marinate for a while.

STORING
Although you can grate the carrots ahead and keep them covered and chilled, and you can make the vinaigrette up to 3 days ahead, the dressed salad should be eaten within a few hours.

W
HEN MY FRIEND HÉLÈNE SAMUEL CREATED
the now-gone but still talked-about café Délicabar Snack Chic in Paris's Le Bon Marché department store, she wanted the menu to have as much color as the room (which had tons), and so she came up with a bunch of salads named for their hues. Of course there was a green salad, but there were yellow, orange, red, and white ones too. And while each had its appeal, the white salad became my regular. Maybe it was the combination of crunchy apples and celery with Napa cabbage, or maybe it was the dressing, a yogurt vinaigrette made like a light mayonnaise. Whatever it was, I was happy when she gave me the recipe, which I make in both Paris and New York, since the ingredients are easily available pretty much everywhere.

TO MAKE THE SALAD:
Trim the celery stalks and peel them with a vegetable peeler to remove the tough, stringy outer layer (or at least the tough strings that the peeler catches). At Délicabar, the celery was cut into ribbons. If you want to do this, cut each stalk crosswise in half, then use the peeler to shave thin strips. To curl the ribbons and keep them until serving time, put them in a bowl filled with ice cubes and water and store them in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can simply cut the celery crosswise into thin slices and toss them into a bowl.

Peel, halve, and core the apples. Cut them into to inch cubes. Sprinkle and toss the apples with a little lemon juice to keep them from going brown, and add them to the celery.

Depending on how dirty your mushrooms are, brush them to remove any loose dirt or wipe them clean with a damp paper towel. If their feet are fat and spongy, snap them off and discard them (or pop them into the freezer to save for vegetable broth); if not, just trim them and leave them on. In either case, cut the mushrooms into thin slices. Sprinkle and toss the slices with a squirt of lemon juice and add them to the bowl.

Remove any tough outer leaves from the cabbage and quarter the cabbage
the long way. Cut away the tough core at the base, then cut the cabbage crosswise into thin (coleslaw-like) slices. Add to the bowl and give everything a good mix.

TO MAKE THE VINAIGRETTE:
You can make this dressing, essentially a mayonnaise, in a food processor or blender, or you can do it by hand with a whisk (which is the way I do it, because it's fast and the cleanup is easy). Put the egg yolk in the processor, blender, or bowl, add 1 tablespoon of the yogurt, season with salt and white pepper, and pulse or whisk to blend. With the processor or blender running, or whisking constantly, add the olive oil drop by drop. When the mixture starts to look like mayonnaise, you can pour in the oil in a steady but gentle stream. When you've added about half of the oil, blend or whisk in most of the lemon juice, then return to the oil. Finally, add the remaining 6 tablespoons yogurt. Taste and add more lemon juice, salt, and/or white pepper, if you'd like.
(The vinaigrette can be made up to a day ahead and refrigerated; whisk before using.)

To serve, drain the celery ribbons, if you made them, pat them dry, and mix them in with the rest of the vegetables in the bowl. Pour over the vinaigrette and give everything a good toss. Transfer to a serving bowl or salad plates and sprinkle over the sesame seeds.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
It almost goes without saying that at Délicabar, the salad was served on white plates. If you're not too strict about whiteness, you can use colorful plates—or even serve the salad on a bed of greens dressed with just a squirt of lemon juice, a little olive oil, and salt and white pepper.

STORING
The vinaigrette can be made a day ahead and kept in the fridge (press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface); whisk it before using. You can cut the vegetables, sprinkle them with lemon juice, and chill them for a few hours before assembling the salad.

T
HIS CLASSIC DISH IS SERVED
in the hippest places, including the wine bar/wine shop Le Verre Volé near the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris. The always-crowded restaurant doesn't have a real kitchen, and the owners depend on their chef friends to supply dishes that they can assemble or heat in their small countertop oven. However, there are a few dishes that are
fait maison,
or homemade, and leeks vinaigrette is one of them.

A plate of tender leeks (leeks are not meant to be crunchy—ever) generously bathed in vinaigrette, it's a model of simplicity and an age-old standard. But at Le Verre Volé, there's a little something that makes the dish different—the walnut oil in the vinaigrette. It's perfect with the leeks.

The most traditional way to serve this dish is
au mimosa,
or showered with sieved hard-boiled egg, the specks of which resemble mimosa flowers. It gives the simple dish a touch of style.

You'll be using the white part of the leeks and just the palest green part, so trim your leeks accordingly and cut off the whiskers at the root end, taking care not to cut into the leeks. (You can save the dark green parts to add to vegetable soup; discard before serving.) If your leeks are very young and very tight, you can just run the cut part under cold water and drain. Older, fatter leeks need a more thorough cleaning, so split them down the center, stopping before you cut through the root end, and give them a good rinse, making sure to get rid of any dirt that has found its way between the leeks' outer layers.

Divide the leeks into 2 piles and tie each bundle together with kitchen twine. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and drop in the leeks. Lower the heat so that the water bubbles steadily but gently and cook the leeks for 10 to 20 minutes, or until they can be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. (How long the leeks need to be cooked will depend on their size and their age.)

MEANWHILE, MAKE THE VINAIGRETTE:
Put the mustard, vinegar, and walnut and olive oils in a small covered jar and shake until the dressing is emulsified; or whisk together in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Lift the tender leeks out of the water, snip the twine, and pat the leeks dry in a clean dish towel or between layers of paper towels. If the leeks are thick, finish cutting them in half lengthwise. If you'd like, you can cut the leeks crosswise into 1-to 2-inch-long pieces.

Put the leeks on a serving platter, pour over the vinaigrette, and let them cool a little bit.

Grate the hard-boiled egg over the leeks and serve immediately.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

SERVING
I think the leeks are at their best served warm, shortly after they've come out of the pot; however, they are also excellent at room temperature. They can be served cold, but the chill lessens their distinctive flavor.

STORING
The leeks, mixed with the vinaigrette, can be kept covered in the refrigerator overnight. Held overnight, the grated hard-boiled egg won't fare as well.

B
ECAUSE ROASTED PEPPERS ARE SO ATTRACTIVE,
it's easy to forget that they can be delicious and that they can stand on their own as a starter. At least I think it's easy for us Americans to forget—we never seem to use them for anything but color. Not so the French. In France, roasted red peppers, slicked with olive oil, sometimes scattered with garlic, and often speckled with herbs, are a time-honored bistro dish; they're served as a starter with a fork, a knife, and plenty of bread. They make an appetizer that couldn't be plainer, but we order them often at a favorite restaurant in Paris, Brasserie Fernand. It's also a dish that delights everyone when our friend Martine Collet makes it.

When Martine serves roasted peppers, she makes them look like jewels. She roasts lots and lots of them, arranges them in beautifully overlapping rows on a large platter, interlaces the rows with herbs, gives each row a gloss of olive oil, and finishes the platter with a scattering of small black Niçoise olives. It's a lesson in how to give something simple some dazzle.

While you can certainly prepare green peppers in this fashion, their flavor is a bit strong for the dish. The best peppers to use are the thick-fleshed boxy Holland peppers and, while red is the color you see most often in France, yellow, orange, and purple peppers roast nicely too.

This recipe can be multiplied, and multiplied, and multiplied.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat, parchment paper, or aluminum foil (this is a good job for nonstick foil).

Wash and dry the peppers, put them on the baking sheet, and roast them, turning them every 15 minutes, until some of the skin on every side of the peppers is blistered, 45 to 60 minutes. The peppers may collapse and some may seep some juice—that's fine. Transfer the peppers to a bowl (be careful—that juice is very hot), cover the bowl with foil, and let the peppers rest until they are cool enough to handle.